Like many schools, Cumberland High School in Rhode Island has been wrestling for years with the standards-era question: How do we shift our grading system to reflect genuine mastery and not just compliance? This question, reflected most recently in NASSP’s position statement on competency-based education, prompted us to design a proficiency-based grading system based on student performance levels, which is then translated into a numerical grade. The performance-level rubric promotes consistent scoring across all teachers in all disciplines, relying on moderate, strong, and distinguished command of the standard. And, perhaps most important, students also receive feedback on how they can improve their performance.